He never came back. Neither Ezra nor Major. Both were gone in that instant. For hours I lay, long after his car drove away and the world was silent. The life was sucked from me. My soul seemed gone, my being vacated and nothing remained but pain. I was empty. He’d walked away. Just like he said he would. Just like I’d hoped he wouldn’t. One thing I knew for certain was that Ezra and this other called Major Colt weren’t men who’d lied to me. They’d both been brutally honest. I had chosen not to believe them.
Epilogue
Williams had to drive Hale north to White Plains to meet the cartel and get his coke. He had cash for the kilo and this deal was new and his connection was solid and reliable. He’d move the cocaine through his regular channels and then see if the purity was approved. His customers would let him know, though he kept barriers between them and himself.
As far as Williams knew they were going to meet a partner, a new guy that Hale had hired. He owned two restaurants around White Plains and though this was not unusual it was early. They’d left New York at three in the morning with the snow and the ice cascading, falling in chunks and freezing the roads, though Williams knew what he was doing. Before he worked as a driver for Hale, this Williams had other employers. Williams had been around.
“Sir, I’m sorry to bother you. It’s this rest stop? The one on the right?”
“Yes Williams. Park underneath the floodlight. They’ll be waiting in a car like this one and will flash their lights when they see us.”
“Very good. Thank you sir.”
They exited slowly and cautiously from the road to the rest stop and Williams took his time. He dodged piled up ice with snow on its top and Hale didn’t seemed bothered. The car he had mentioned was waiting. He was fifteen minutes early, so they must’ve been twenty and that didn’t make him suspicious. This cartel was run by business men much like himself and his father, though his father didn’t have what it took, so he remained in “legitimate ventures,” while Hale expanded into dope and the cash that flowed with its selling.
“They are here,” Williams said.
“Park fifty feet away so I can see them walk to me and then I’ll need you to go in the restrooms. Here’s a thousand for your inconvenience.”
“Thank you sir. Such is appreciated.”
Hale fisted the cash between the seats and Williams received it with a smile, looking over his shoulder one more time at his boss scowling from the back. As usual, he was proud of himself.
Williams parked and asked “is there anything else?” Hale replied “do what I told you!” Williams then said “so be it.” He stepped from the car into the snow and when he closed the door they locked. No one exited the other black vehicle and he realized he was a hundred feet away instead of the agreed upon fifty.
“Williams! Get the fuck back in here and move us closer to them!”
Williams had simply and wholly evaporated into the ice and the snow and the gloom. Hale yanked at the door and it would not open and then he tried all the others unsuccessfully. When Ezra, Gia and Williams in a pack walked in front of Hale’s idling car, they all stopped in the headlights and waved. Another vehicle then exited, picked the three up, and they departed continuing north. Ezra, Williams and the driver didn’t look, but Gia glanced over the seat, both cars exploding in a mushrooming blast and when she spoke she spoke to herself.
“I hate a motherfucker that beats on a woman.”
Ezra replied “amen.”